Hanebado!

Episode 11

Okay, perhaps Hanebado! has been dragging things out a bit too long at this point. With all that setup in the last episode, I came in to this week's installment with what I thought was an understanding that this episode would take us right into the big Ayano vs Nagisa Finals match. Instead, about two-thirds of this episode spend more time standing around rehashing the points and tension that were addressed in the last one, without even the boys' team side-story or accompanying match. And because this is all setup for whatever the fallout of the match will be, we don't actually see any real character development.

The most predictable problem in watching all this is Ayano. The whole Badminton Terminator schtick was an interesting idea several episodes ago, but it's severely worn out its welcome, since there's been no movement on the development front for it. Most of the other characters seem to just regard her with mild worry, possibly because unlike Nagisa, they won't have to play against her. The coach briefly ruminates on her attitude, but doesn't really hint at how he feels about it, whether or not he thinks any action should be taken by him, or what that action would be. And with her deciding to play for herself last episode, Nagisa's prep for the match doesn't really focus on what it might do for Ayano either. As far as that main character is concerned, it's been very hammered in that Ayano is going to need to learn an important lesson by participating in this match, and as of this episode we still have no idea what that's going to be. That's frustrating, since the final call on how good this show actually is really hinges on it.

The one standout in this situation is Elena, who seems to have finally picked up on what Ayano's issues are and what might be done about them. It's honestly a relief that someone seems to have gotten a clue as to how messed-up Uchika's coaching was or what it's done to her daughter, and seeing Elena being willing to confront Bad Mom on the subject is a promising development, albeit one we'll have to wait until the next episode to see play out. Even then, Elena's epiphanies about Ayano's reasons for playing badminton being psychologically limited and how she indirectly led her friend to them good to see. They might have landed even better if the show hadn't been drilling them into the audience over and over for the past few weeks.

The episode tries to wring drama out of everyone else' circumstances but it all kinda just drifts right by, since so much of the meatier stuff was covered in previous episodes. Nagisa already decided to play against Ayano for herself, and she's gonna be careful with her knee while doing so. Virtually everyone on the team now understands that playing badminton because you love it and find it fun is the best reason to do so. Since all of that is all wrapped up already, what we get instead are long stretches of mood scenes trying to sell us on characters being nervous about the upcoming match. The tension was already there from the earlier setups, we didn't need tons of shots of characters staring into the distance or a pensive insert-song montage.

It's a whole lot of poorly-presented downer choices for this episode to make, so I'm at least thankful that that's not all it has to offer. The last third does at last get the ball rolling (or shuttlecock volleying, as it were) on that much-hyped match. And it seems we're going to be in it for the long haul (or at least for the next couple episodes). Thus far there's been no skipping of scoring or plays, we see exactly two points scored by Nagisa play out, with shockingly detailed explanations for each one. These are cases where the over-explaining of the plays is worthwhile, I think, since the match between these two masters of the game almost immediately turns into a technical, high-speed chess match, and the accompanying gameplay animation is as dynamic as ever. It's also nice, after all that puffed-up angst, to just get to see an excellently-portrayed game of badminton in this show again. Here, the style of presentation has me looking forward to a multi-stage ‘boss battle’ on the court.

But that strong last session can't make up for the shortcomings that finally overtake this show's choices in the first two thirds. I'm not exaggerating when I say there are parts there you could fast forward through because they provide nothing we haven't seen or heard from this story before. Some of it at least looks pretty, but the circling combination of Uchika's uncontested abuse and Ayano's detached persona becoming less likable each second it sticks around makes it feel like the show could have spent this time better, if it really needed to pad all that out. It's lucky the last portion reminded me of what I do really like about this show.

Rating: C

Hanebado! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.